Montenegro secures funds for construction of wastewater treatment plant in its capital

Montenegro has secured most of the needed funds for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Podgorica, worth EUR 50 million. The international tender for the construction of the plant is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2018.

Two loan agreements has been today signed between the Government of Montenegro and the German Development Bank (KfW), as well the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) grant agreement for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Podgorica.

The project, worth EUR 50.35 million, will be financed by two KfW loans worth EUR 30 million and 5 million respectively, and by the grant of EUR 10.15 million. The remaining EUR 5.2 million will be provided by the city authorities or the WBIF grants for which they plan to apply in the next call.

“The project’s goal is to improve the collection and treatment of wastewater at affordable costs and in an environmentally sound manner,” Montenegrin Finance Minister Darko Radunović said after signing the agreements.

He added that this project will greatly contribute to the protection of the environment, especially local and regional water areas, which are located downstream, thus improving the living conditions of the population.

Experts said that some 50 percent of the city’s wastewater flows directly into the Morača River without treatment which poses a danger to Lake Skadar, shared by Montenegro and Albania, and underground waters. The project should improve the condition of the Morača River, the Boljesestre water source and Lake Skadra.

International tender to be called next year

Vladan Vučelić, director of public water and sewer utility Vodovod i kanalizacija, announced that the prequalification process for the selection of a consultant will be completed by the end of next week.

“I expect that in two months at latest we will get an expert consultant with whom we will prepare tender documents, and publish an international tender in the first quarter of the next year,” Vučelić said.

The German companies Fichtner and Avi Plan have drawn up studies which include solutions for the waste water purification systems in the Montenegrin capital.

Podgorica has a waste water purification plant but experts have warned that the facility, which was built some time in the 1970s, has neither the capacities to handle the amount of waste water generated in the city nor can it treat those waters adequately.